Online Privacy, The World Is Watching

Influence Perception

Do you really want everyone to know where you spend your summers or what you had for lunch? have you ever wanted to know more about someone? Perhaps a new family friend, neighbor or employee?

It is easy to find out, it’s free and readily available within the world of social media! It is also extremely creepy and definitely something you need to understand.

If you use social sites like Yelp, Facebook, Myspace, Last.Fm, Twitter, then people can see what you are doing (yes?), they can connect the dots, they know what you had for breakfast!  Of course the reason they know is because you blasted it onto Twitter or you wrote a breakfast burrito review on Yelp.

Oops! weren’t you supposed to be at work instead of eating burritos?

Internet Spies don’t have to “connect the dots” thanks to sites like zoominfo.com and 123people.com which are aggregating freely available content about you! This is a warning of things to come. If you aren’t controlling your online persona then OTHERS WILL.

Now, this is probably a larger concern for celebrities, politicians and business leaders than it is for the average Joe but you, Mr. average Joe, need to be aware. Take control of your online personality today.

What can you do?

You have two choices, stay off the internet and social sites (yeah right!) or manage your online presence. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Don’t Share Private Information – If you are just discovering the incredibly world of online media like Twitter or Facebook, avoid the urge to tell everyone what you are doing every second of the day. And definitely avoid posting anything that you don’t want others to hear or read now or in the future (No company Christmas party stories).
2. Control Your Online Presence – Register your name “JohnDoe.com or lastname.com” and publish information that you want others to know. Write articles and leave comments that link back to your “about me” on JohnDoe.com. Influence what floats to the top of search engines.
3. Have Positive Associations – Associate your online personality with better sources and positive movements. If you support a charity make sure the world knows this! Post comments on that charity site. Avoid commenting on are being associated with potentially negative sources. Just because you think marijuana should be legalized doesn’t mean that you need to post it on Facebook.

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